Text of a speech prepared by Shirley Littler for the conference of the Royal College of Nursing's Midwifery Society 1996, together with a covering letter to colleagues in the National Advisory Body of the Confidential Enquiries into Stillbirths and Deaths in Infancy [the conference was cancelled but SL hoped that 'the bird's eye view of the development of CESDI since 1992 in the speech will be interesting to colleagues on the NAB'].